While Kazue's core was preparing to claim their next zone, Moriko fidgeted with one of the new 'trinkets' that Satsuki had brought with her. While she couldn't understand everything that her spouses were learning from these gifts, Moriko could understand the basics. Some of the new metals and alloys could mimic or even surpass mithral's physical properties without any hint of magical essence. This did come with the drawback of not acting as if it was silver for various creatures, but if they could surpass mithral's durability and lightness it made an interesting alternative and possible midway point toward adamantine.

This item was much stranger than those. The outer layers of the flat rectangle were obviously some sort of resin, though she'd never seen a resin so perfectly clear before. Moriko had thought it was glass until she had touched it.

In the center was a paper-thin square with an improbable image of a mountaintop from the center of a city that spread to the horizon. On top of that was some unknown lettering that looked like it was floating from the correct angle, but it was a physical illusion of some sort. Moriko couldn't find a hint of magic in this either.

"Are those letters, printed?" Moriko asked as she tilted the rectangle again. "They look perfectly squared off and exactly the same size."

Satsuki considered the question before nodding. "Close enough. They use the same word for the process as they use for the sort of machine printing you know of."

Mordecai, Kazue, Moriko, and Satsuki were all gathered around the table where Satsuki had presented the gifts and they were now enjoying a late breakfast together while poring over the curiosities presented by their visitor. Though maybe enjoying it was stretching things? Satsuki certainly seemed to be enjoying herself, but the rest of them were feeling a bit overwhelmed.

Moriko put the trinket back down on the table and enjoyed some tea as she considered the implications of what they'd been told. Satsuki was coy about details, though she would drop little hints based on what they figured out.

She wouldn't have thought that learning the manufacturing process could be just as important to a dungeon, but the more that Mordecai and Kazue understood about how an object was made, the easier it was to design variations.

Mordecai lightly flicked a small, nail-like item to make it roll around on the table. However, instead of a straight, squared shaft, it had a round shaft with a 'blade' that spiraled around it and a large, hex-shaped top. "You," he said with a sigh, "traveled between worlds via the Other Side, didn't you?"

"Well," Satsuki replied, "I was enjoying a beachside vacation spot when dear Sylphi popped in, so I just grabbed a few items that came to mind. Oh, don't give me that look. Fine, these I got from the local tourist shops, but then I got word you'd managed to become a faerie king. That's when I decided to get something special and custom-ordered those necklaces. I'd have been here months ago if I hadn't had to wait on them. It's a good thing I used a divination spell to ask how many necklaces I'd want to bring as gifts, I was expecting to give out three, not five."

He closed his eyes for a moment before saying, "These memories are still buried, but I've dug up some of what I know. I don't think you were supposed to bring these across."

Satsuki waved off his concern. "My dear, you always worry too much about those sorts of things, these are just passive items. I didn't bring you any of the neat toys involving, um, 'structured glass alloys that use precise electric inputs to perform tasks'." A fond smile crossed her lips as she added, "The engineer I elicited that description from was cute when he started talking about his work in detail. But he did tell me that it was a very oversimplified summary."

"That," Mordecai said as he tilted his head slightly, "does not sound like a familiar description."

"No, it wouldn't." Satsuki agreed. "Once your avatars reached the threshold of mortal power and mastery, you never kept them for more than a few years. While it was fun occasionally seducing a new variation of you, I'd have loved to see you push an avatar to its true limits."

The way that Satsuki glanced at Kazue and Moriko when she talked about seducing Mordecai's previous avatars gave Moriko the distinct impression that the nine-tail was considering what it would be like to seduce all three of them.

Kazue was only half paying attention to the conversation as she stared at the strange, tall metal cup in her hand. "My core's figured out how this works," she muttered, "but my brain is still having trouble with the idea that this works without magic." The inside of the cup was filled with hot tea, but the outside was still cool to the touch.

Moriko smiled at her wife and said, "I'd have thought you would be playing with those pens and the wood-wrapped graphite stick."

"Those were easy to figure out," Kazue said, "I think we can even work out how to make them without magic. Though, admittedly, the inks are kinda weird, and I’m not sure how they made those more liquidy inks in the bright colors with the sparkles. This thing, however," she tapped the cup, "I don't know how they made it without any air or other stuff between the layers."

So many strange items, like the weirdly shiny sword. Mordecai had said that it wouldn't rust in most conditions, but it was far too brittle for combat. Again, not magic, but because of how it was made and what it was made with. Moriko frowned at Satsuki as she thought about what Mordecai had just said, that Satsuki wasn't 'supposed' to bring certain items here. "Wait, are there rules about what you can bring between worlds?"

Mordecai's "Yes" and Satsuki's hand waved "Sort of" mushed together as they responded at the same time. Mordecai gave her a hard look and Satsuki raised her hands up in the air.

"Fine, fine, you take this one darling. You know I don't really care about these rules." She said.

He sighed then turned back to Moriko and Kazue, who had stopped staring at her cup. "It's complicated. The exact memories are buried still, but I had kept this knowledge near the surface layers, so I didn't have to unpack much. There are multiple sets of rules, though some are more opinions than declarations. First, worlds that start to accumulate widespread, advanced knowledge also tend to start worrying about the spread of that knowledge. Sometimes the concern is based on fears about giving knowledge to potential enemies, and sometimes the concern is having an undue influence on cultures that do not have equivalent knowledge. It doesn't matter if that knowledge is magical or not, and some knowledge is more restricted than others. But these are mortal, local laws, and are technically not relevant outside of the worlds and realms that set them."

Ah, their hubby was in teacher mode again. Moriko and Kazue exchanged amused glances before turning back to Mordecai with extremely eager and attentive expressions.

This caused Mordecai to pause and look at them suspiciously for a moment before he smiled. "I'll try not to make this too long," he said dryly. "Now, as for divine rules, or rather, opinions, well, they are divided."

Mordecai began ticking off on his fingers as he went through the Empyreal Pillars. "Zagaroth has taken no stance that I have ever heard; Amirume is okay with limited, well-moderated exchanges to help civilization and culture advance without wiping out the younger one; Mericume is fine with everyone doing as they please; Sakiya thinks it is fine for individuals to retrieve knowledge from other places and bring it back home, so long as the person is being true to what they want; and Ozuran thinks that the local rules and laws should be honored in such matters."

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Satsuki made a disgusted sound. Moriko was fairly certain that the nine-tail was a follower of Mericume. While Kazue was not quite so dismissive of inconvenient rules, it was a common trait amongst the most devoted of the moon goddess's followers.

The interruption was ignored as Mordecai continued, "Li is oblivious of course. The elemental lords tend to not care much, so long as their roles are still respected and honored. The elven pantheon mostly leans toward keeping the spread of knowledge moderated while the dwarven pantheon tends to be eager to see the spread of any skill or technique that involves crafting and creation, given that hand crafting and creation are preserved as well. It is usually fairly easy to guess for divinities whose opinions you don't know. I can only imagine that Dormire is happy to have this sort of knowledge and power spread through his followers, while Diasthian's nature as a protector probably makes her much more cautious."

Moriko supposed that made sense, but she did have one question. "You said these were opinions, not rules?"

He nodded and said, "Yes. In the end, this is a matter of free wills being exercised, even if they are in opposition. So the gods give their opinions, but few have any edicts or strict rules on the topic."

Kazue tilted her head and asked, "So why haven't we heard about these opinions before? And how did she get this stuff here?"

"Society at large has not needed to know about these opinions on our world," Mordecai replied, "and Satsuki is a mistress of smuggling. She didn't travel through the equivalent of a port city. Instead, she hopped directly into Faerie and made her way across the faerie lands of that world and then whatever she found between those realms and the faerie realms adjacent to our world."

Well, wasn't that just disturbing? Moriko didn't know much about what lay between worlds on the Other Side, but she knew that that just as Faerie was expansive when correlated to places where there was a lot of life and magic, the areas of the Other Side that correlated to the void between worlds were strange places of compressed and twisted space and were home to denizens that made faeries a positive delight to be around.

"But I need to head down now," Mordecai said. "Kazue's core is just about done with setting up the new zone and I have some manual work to do to reinforce the safeties on part of our plan."

Once he was gone, Satsuki's attitude became conspiratorial. "Well, now for some girl talk, yes? Mordecai, I am asking for privacy, thank you."

Moriko could feel the vague sense of his presence fade. He hadn't been focused here, but she could tell that he was now deliberately ignoring the room. It was clear that Satsuki understood how dungeons worked, in addition to knowing how Mordecai specifically would react.

Kazue eyed the older kitsune woman warily. "What do you want?"

"Now, isn't that a lovely and open-ended question," Satsuki purred. "If we are limited only by what I want, well, I do have a lot of desires that both of you could help me with."

Moriko's heart was suddenly beating faster in response to those words and the promise carried in Satsuki's tone. A mixture of panic and anger drove her to her feet with a shocked Kazue only a beat behind. "Don't you dare," Moriko hissed at Satsuki, "I've made my feelings clear on the subject."

"Yes, you have," Satsuki replied in an amused voice, "and while your wife feels the same, I think she also caught a layer you didn't. Now Luv, why don't you tell us what you think I really want?"

Kazue shivered before she answered in a quiet voice. "You want Mordecai. All three of us, really, but him most of all. And if you could get to him by seducing us first, you would."

Moriko gaped at Kazue.

"Very good," Satsuki said with satisfaction, though Moriko thought she heard a note of sadness in her voice now. "I've always enjoyed my time with him, though it also always ended in a flare-up of some kind between us. This is the strongest I've ever seen him too, and I don't mean trifles like power. This is the first time the man has been effectively immune to me, and I have to admit I am a bit jealous."

This was getting weird. Moriko sat back down and rubbed her head as she tried to figure out what was going on.

"How badly do you want it, I wonder?" Kazue mused. "I imagine you like being in control, even if it's by provoking the other person into acting. But do you want Mordecai and us badly enough to give that up?"

Satsuki sounded mildly surprised as she answered, "I think I might. But please, don't tease me. You are playing with the idea, but I can tell you don't mean it. At least, you don't mean it enough."

"No, I suppose not," Kazue replied before sitting down again herself. "So what was the point of that little demonstration?"

Moriko felt a little lost here. For all that she had been with so many people, those had been straightforward dealings. Maybe she should finally get around to reading some of Kazue’s books. Her 'innocent' Kazue seemed to know some things Moriko didn’t. "I would like to know what is going on too."

"A mix of things are going on, of course," Satsuki said with a smile. "My offer was sincere enough, even if I didn't expect to be taken up on it. There's a reason Norumi is my only child, and there were no mistakes involved on my part. I'm also venting a little bit of frustration."

She waggled a finger at both of them. "You ruined my plans you know. I studied those wards, and there was a narrow gap coming up in a few decades. A period where the wards would have been weak enough to break without Mordecai being so starved as to be in serious danger yet. It was going to be a fresh start, just the two of us. Maybe if I could just have had an avatar of his be so close to his core self..."

Satsuki sighed. "It was probably a foolish idea. But none of his avatars I've been with had been as centered on his core's personality as this one. So there was a hope and at least he'd be alive."

There was a moment of silence while Satsuki gathered her thoughts back together. "Enough of that. It was also a test, I needed to see and feel your reactions. You weren't just defending yourselves, you were defending Mordecai and his emotions. If I'm not going to be able to have him again, then I need to at least make sure he's well-situated and isn't going to get hurt. So, I am pleased, even if it comes at a cost to me."

Moriko and Kazue looked at each other as they processed this confession of Satsuki's, but the woman wasn't done yet.

"I also have some advice," she said to them. "Don't let Mordecai retire this avatar. Possibly ever. He's had his opportunities to explore variations of his personality and he's developed a staggering breadth of power and skill, even if its depth is currently lacking. I think it is time he stuck with one indefinitely. The new experience is going to be no longer hopping from persona to persona. Most people don't get to do that and I think it had simply become an addictive habit for him. One that I don't think will help him grow anymore."

"Are you sure you can leave it at that?" Kazue asked.

"Yes," Satsuki said with a resigned sigh, "I'm afraid so. Let's be honest, my grand scheme to become Mordecai's savior would probably have fallen apart eventually. I get dangerous ideas around him. Maybe it's time to truly let go. I almost made a very dangerous mistake, early on in his war."

"Oh?" Moriko asked. She wasn't entirely sure she wanted to know, but she was also morbidly curious.

Satsuki nodded, her gaze unfocused, as she recalled the memory. "I had made sure Norumi was safe of course. But after that, I was tempted to go to him, to tempt and provoke him. It's hard to get the man to entirely lose control of himself, but at the time Mordecai was lost in his rage. I'd have made myself a target for him to vent some of his anger, grief, and pain. With all his old avatars active, it would have been quite an experience. After that, when he had calmed enough to think more rationally, I'd have joined him on his hunt."

She smiled wistfully at the thought. "It would have been a grand hunt too. Not this mad war to raze everything between him and his foes, no, not with me at his side. With his pain eased, we could have focused ourselves and been more patient, working over the decades and centuries to stamp out every last trace of that damned cult. But what would that have made of him? I'd have saved Mordecai from the backlash that got him sealed, but I'd have lost him to a colder, crueler version of himself. It would have been etched into his core and shown in any future avatar."

Satsuki shook off those thoughts and memories. "No, it was for the best that instead, I helped mitigate the damage his war dragons did. Now the Mordecai that I care for so much is still here, and the happiest I think I've ever seen him. That part stings you know. But I'll be fine."

"Are you sure?" Moriko asked. The way that Satsuki felt about Mordecai seemed so complicated and painful that Moriko was very uncertain about how to tread this ground.

"Oh, yes, I'm sure," Satsuki replied. "There are ways for me to gain some satisfaction from the situation. For one, I entirely intend to spoil that Fuyuko of yours. It'll drive him a little mad trying to figure out what my hidden motive is, and that will be entertaining. Plus the girl seems like she'd be a sweetheart to spoil and not likely to become rotten from it. I'd also be happy to teach you all of his secrets I know, especially the ones he doesn't know that I know."

"Um, thank you?" Kazue said uncertainly.

"You are quite welcome, dear. It won't do to let him become too complacent after all. I have all sorts of juicy tidbits for you."

They were about half an hour into gossiping about Mordecai's sordid past when a sudden sense of worry swept out from Kazue's core.

As soon as they understood what was happening, Moriko and Kazue started scrambling to get into finery fit for the occasion while telling Satsuki what was happening.

"Directly into the underworld?" she mused. "Oh, this should be entertaining. I have to go along. Oh, don't worry, I can play the role of attendant well enough if it suits me. In this case, it suits my curiosity. Well, let me help get you ready so we can be off quicker."